Directory_and_Chronicle_1940 — Page 406

TIENTSIN

Tien-tsin

Tientsin-or the Ford of Heaven, according to the Chinese meaning of its name-may now well be called the commercial capital of North China. Situated at the junction of the Grand Canal and the Pei Ho in Lat. 39 deg. 4 min. N., long. 117 deg. 4 min. E. (approx.), it is some 80 miles distant from Peking by road and somewhat further by river. Railway connection with the capital was established in 1897. A road between the two places, 94 miles long, was completed towards the end of 1922, and communication was further facilitated by the inauguration of a wireless telephone service on March 7th of that year. The expeditions of the Allies in 1858-61 greatly enhanced the importance of the city, as it then proved to be the military key of the capital and an excel- lent base. It was here on June 26th, 1858, that Lord Elgin signed the treaty which was to conclude the war, but which unhappily led to its prolongation. The famous temple in which the treaty was signed, about a mile distant from the West gate, was destroyed by British shells in July, 1900.

Tientsin owes its early importance to its location at the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, and its later developinent is mainly due to the opening up of North China to foreign trade, to improved railway communications with the Interior, and to the deepening of the Bar and the Hai Ho by the Hai Ho Conservancy Board. Before the advent of steamers, however, Tientsin had become a flourishing centre for junk traffic, and when the tribute rice no longer followed the Grand Canal route--owing to the shoaling of this ancient and celebrated waterway-it was sent to Tientsin in sea-going junks when follow- ing the downfall of the Manchu dynasty in 1912, the transportation of this commodity ceased altogether. Early in September, 1917, the Hunho was in flood, and, finally, the Grand Canal burst its banks a few miles west of Tien- tsin, carrying away the main line of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, which_re- sulted in the Concessions being flooded before much warning of the impending danger could be given. The Municipal authorities of the various Concessions dealt with the problem in a prompt and public-spirited manner, and it was ultimately decided to enclose the submerged Concessions with a dyke and pump out the flood waters therefrom. The lengths of the various dykes in miles were approximately as follows:-Chinese (ex-German) 0.47; British, 1.40; French and British, 0.87; French, 0.32; Japanese, 2.27; total, 5.33 miles. Powerful pumps were then erected, and the whole undertaking for the British and French Concessions was successfully and expeditiously completed in a fortnight. It took longer to clear the Japanese Concession, however, where the water was from 7 to 10 feet deep in places. It is estimated that over 15,000 square miles of the most populous part of the Chihli province between Pao- tingfu and Tientsin were flooded, and it has been calculated that crops to the value of $100,000,000 were utterly lost, and that 80,000 groups of dwellings, ranging from hamlets to large villages, were destroyed.

Turning to the civil administration of the city, it is well known that during the long satrapy of Li the trade and importance of the city developed ex- ceedingly. Li, by the vigour of his rule, soon quelled the rowdyism for which the Tientsinese were notorious throughout the empire, and, as he made the city his chief residence and the centre of his many experiments in military and naval education, it came to be regarded as the focus of the new learning and national reform. The foreign affairs of China were practically directed from Tientsin during the two decades 1874-94.